Grant Agreement: If the proposal has been selected for funding, the Project Coordinator will receive the Evaluation Summary Report and will be invited to prepare the Grant Agremeent. The Grant Agreement is signed between the Coordinator and the EC and is deemed to enter into force on the day of the last signature (that of the EC Director in charge of the programme). The other project participants sign Accession Forms to accede to the Grant Agreement. See the H2020 Annotated Model Grant Agreements for more details. All this is done electronically via the Funding & Tenders Opportunities Portal.
Consortium Agreement: For most H2020 and Horizon Europe projects, the consortium will be required to prepare and sign a Consortium Agreement. Whereas the Grant Agreement defines the rights and obligations related to the project, of the beneficiaries (signatories of the Grant Agreement) on one side and the EC on the other side, the Consortium Agreement deals with the rights and obligations between the beneficiaries themselves with regard to the execution of the project. See the DESCA H2020 Model Consortium Agreement for more details.
The Consortium Agreement should define in particular:
- -the project management structure and decision making process, which must be appropriate for the size of the consortium and the nature of the project;
- -the budget distribution among the beneficiaries, and the procedure for the implementation of the EU payments
- -the mutual liability of the parties;
- -mechanisms for conflict resolution, including the handling of defaulting partners, and in case of very severe problems for excluding them from the project;
- -the procedure for accepting new participants;
- -all provisions concerning access to, and exploitation of, Intellectual Property Rights in order to implement and supplement the provisions of the Grant Agreement.